ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the first great revolution in human conditions, the replacement of hunting and gathering with agriculture, among many of the world's peoples, in the millennia after 9000 BCE. Most agricultural societies also saw the wealthier classes have more children than the masses of the population, because they alone had the means of support. Early legal codes, from Babylonia in the Middle East, insisted that parents did not have the right to disavow their children unless they could prove legitimate causes: they must continue to support their offspring otherwise. Contagious diseases such as measles or smallpox became a greater problem for agricultural societies than had been the case for hunters, and disproportionately affected children and the elderly. Agricultural festivals, around planting, harvesting, and often religious or historical recollections, provided opportunities for young people to gain special roles in games and athletic contests, sometimes committing minor acts of vandalism or mocking their elders and social leaders.
